It's a first. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has agreed to examine a complaint against France for its refusal to repatriate a family of jihadists, the Council’s judicial institution said on Monday 10 February Europe.
Two grandparents had seized the ECHR at the beginning of May to obtain the condemnation of France for her refusal to repatriate their daughter, born in 1991 and left for Syria in 2014, where she had two children now aged 5 years and almost 4 years old. Wounded in the battle of Baghouz, the last cut of the Islamic State group in Syria, they are now detained in the Al-Hol camp, in Syrian Kurdistan and their state of health "Would be deplorable", according to the applicants.
As the first steps in the procedure, the ECHR published on Monday a statement of the facts of this request, as well as a list of questions addressed to the parties, who have several weeks to respond.
No decision for "at least six months"
It is only afterwards that the ECHR will judge this request and decide whether or not to condemn France. The decision is not to wait before "At least six months", said the Court. "In particular, the ECHR will have to determine whether the fate of French nationals detained abroad is indeed within the" jurisdiction "of France (and therefore can be imputed to it)", noted on Twitter the specialist in European law Nicolas Hervieu.
In April 2019, the Council of State had rightly rejected several appeals from French nationals retained in Syria claiming their repatriation to France, believing that this question fell under French diplomacy and therefore exceeded its competence.
No other Council of Europe country has yet received such a request, the European Court of Human Rights has been told.
